The Christmas season is fast approaching and the Lakeland Humane Society is hoping the holiday spirit will benefit the animals in need.
“It is our busiest time of the year. I think people are just more interested in giving at Christmas time, for people that might not think of donating to charities the rest of the year Christmas is a time when they think about giving,” said Cathy Olliffe-Webster, resource development coordinator with the Lakeland Humane Society.
Currently the local shelter is severely over-crowded. Despite only having 14 proper kennels for dogs, there are 31 dogs calling the humane society home, along with 37 cats.
“It's really crowded. Luckily right now a lot of them are puppies so they can go in the same kennel and we have crates for a lot of the smaller dogs but we're really overwhelmed,” said Olliffe-Webster.
She added, “In fact, we've had so many kittens and puppies dropped off we had to put a plea out on Facebook for kitten and puppy food. We just have that many.”
With the increased number of animals to care for, not only does it cause additional expenses for food and cleaning supplies, but it also means extra work for staff. Last week alone, there were cats dropped off every day of the week.
In order to help with the extra burden the overcrowding is causing, the humane society has set up a number of holiday fundraisers to try and take advantage of the Christmas spirit spreading around.
Recently the Lakeland Humane Society entered into the FedEx charity giveaway. Each year, FedEx gives away $5,000 to a charity in Canada. From now until Nov. 26, Olliffe-Webster said they're asking people to go online, vote for them, and then share it around to friends and family. While you can only vote once, each vote represents a ballot that the humane society will receive to be entered into the random draw for $5,000.
From Dec. 9 to 11, the annual Shop-a-paw-looza online auction will take over the society's Facebook page. After a successful run last year, they're hoping businesses and shoppers will get on board once again.
“We're asking for donations from retailers and shops in the community. We auction them off on Facebook so people see an item they like, bid on it and then come in and pick it up if they win,” explained Olliffe-Webster. “We really got a lot of great stuff this year. We have a lot of Etsy artists that have contributed, stuff to eat, drink, play with – it's going to be great.”
Following the conclusion of Shop-a-paw-looza, on Dec. 12 the group will be hosting a bake sale at the Tri-City Mall with human and pet treats. They're also in the midst of selling their Christmas raffle tickets and encouraging the “take a book to work” campaign, where they're asking residents to sell raffle tickets in their workplaces.
“It's very crowded so we really need help more than ever. We need a new shelter, that's in the works, and a lot of the fundraising goes towards that. Also day-to-day stuff, we have to feed all of these animals and clean up after them.”
To bring some Christmas cheer to the animals who spend the holidays in the shelter, the humane society will once again be putting donation boxes in various businesses around the city to collect pet food, treats and toys.
“It's kind of like the food bank. While people are shopping for their food they'll think ‘oh, I'll give to the food bank'. So, while people are shopping for their pets hopefully they'll think, ‘we'll give this to the humane society,'” said Olliffe-Webster, adding that if it wasn't for their fundraising and the generosity of residents these animals would have no place to go.
“Fundraising is everything to us. We have a contract with the city but it's small compared to what we fundraise. We rely on fundraising to survive.”
For more information on any of the Lakeland Humane Society's events, or how you can help, go to http://www.lakelandhumanesociety.org/.
